Cox Earns NFCA All-Region Honors

Courtesy: Steven Olveda – Release: 05/14/2009

BOISE, Idaho – Junior Kathy Cox was rewarded for her inaugural standout season with a spot on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s All-Pacific Region team. Cox earned one of the two spots for third baseman on the team and is one of five representatives from the Western Athletic Conference in the Pacific region.

Cox was the one of the Broncos’ top hitters at the plate all season. She led the team in six major offensive categories to help the Broncos to a WAC Tournament appearance in their inaugural season. The junior led the team with a .341 batting average, 59 hits, 11 homers, 40 RBI, 40 runs scored and a .572 slugging percentage. She ranked ninth among all WAC hitters with her 11 round-trippers and eighth with 40 RBI.

“Kathy was an instrumental component in the success of this inaugural team,” said head coach Erin Thorpe. “She led the team both on and off the field this year and couldn’t be more deserving of this honor.” Read more…

With one quick glance at the Vikings roster, one might assume they are, being that the pair are separated by just one number numerically (Jenna wears #10, Kristin #11) and that they’re both seniors. But, take a look at their hometowns and you’ll see that they come from two different states. And, there happens to be the fact that Jenna is blonde and bats left handed, and Kristin has dark hair and bats right handed.

The differences end about there, though. The two players who both transferred to the Park Blocks after two seasons of playing at the community college level, have been major catalysts in the Vikings run to the NCAA Tournament this year.

Kristin has started this season at three different positions (catcher, designated player and the past 14 games in left field) on her way to earning first team All-Pacific Coast Softball Conference honors. Jenna has started all 53 games for the Viks, including 52 in right field, and was recently picked as a second team all-conference player for the second year in a row.

The two graduated from high school in 2005 and chose to go the community college route to extend their playing careers. Jenna, who hails from nearby Tualatin High School, stayed local and hit .413 in her two seasons at Mt. Hood Community College. A native of Clarkston, Wash., Kristin spent two years at Walla Walla Community College where she was named the 2007 National Junior College Diamond Catcher of the Year after hitting .474.

Unlike junior college baseball where many players transfer up and enjoy success at the NCAA Division I level, JUCO softball players rarely even move on to DI schools. For both Wilson’s, they knew they had the talent to succeed at the highest level of collegiate softball and they didn’t want to stop playing. Read more…

Cottage Grove, OR – The Lane Titan men and the Mt Hood Saint women were the top point earners to win the Southern Region titles. Lane blew away the compitition finshing with 317 points, 187 ahead of runner-up Mt Hood.

Mt Hood’s ladies edged second place Lane by just 2.5 points to take the region crown.

Lane sophomore Bruce Burbank was the high point earner with 30 points and Mt Hood freshman Catherine Sims collected 58 points to lead the women.

Lane’s Grady O’Connor was selected the men’s Southern Region Coach of the Year and Mt Hood’s Matt Hart took the honor on the women’s side.

Vancouver, WA. – Spokane men’s and women’s teams were crowned NWAACC regular season champions on Monday at Washington National Golf Club in Auburn, Washington.

Spokane, Walla Walla and Southwestern Oregon men were in a three way tie with 26 points going into the final match, but Spokane took the maximum 10 points when they edged Bellevue by three strokes to win the match.Â Walla Walla took regular season runner-up with a third place finish, 12 stokes behind Bellevue. Bellevue’s 9 points were enough to catapult the team into a third place regular season tie with Southwestern Oregon, who only managed aÂ fifth place result in the match. Eric McCardle of Skagit Valley was the men’s medalist with a score of 137.
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On the ladies’ side, Spokane won the match by 7 strokes over runner-up Green River. The two squads were neck and neck going into the final match with Spokane leading the league with 32 points and Green River trailing by a only single point. The win sealed the championship for the Sasquatch as the Gators had to settle for a second place regular season finish.Â Skagit Valley took third at the event and finish the regular season in third with 27 points. Jenna Witmer of Green River was the women’s medalistÂ with a final score of 161.
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Coach’s comments: NWAACC Champion in the Heptathlon, Crystal has matured into an awesome athlete. She set lifetime PRs in all of the above events. Her points scored in the Hep also ranks her 20th in the history of the NWAACC Heptathlon.

Another coach wrote, â€œThis is a really good mark at the end of the first day of the hep.â€

Crystal was also nominated by another coach for her heptathlon performance.

FEMALE FIELD ATHLETETaylor Cook, Spokane, Sophomore

Meet: NWAACC Multi Event Championships
Event: Jav Mark: 34.67

Coach’s comments: She had a really good throw for her in the sixth event of the multis

Gresham, Ore. – Sophomore Philip Noble of Treasure Valley overcame a 105 point deficit going into today’s remaining five events in the men’s multi events to pass Clackamas freshman Dominick Walker to take the Decathlon Championship.

Walker went into the day leading the field with 3475 points and continue to hold the lead until the pole vault (third event of the day) where Noble’s winning vault of 4.5m (14′ 9.16″) was 200 points better than Walker’s performance.Â The pole vault dropped Walker into third behind Lane freshman Kevin Godfrey, who scored the second best vault at 4.4m (4′ 5.22″).

Walker pulled back into second in the following event, javelin, with the second best throw of 44.35m (158′ 7.54″) just short of Lane freshman J.J Rosenburg’s toss of 49.33m (161′ 10.12″).

Noble led Walker by 115 pts going into the final event, 1500m, but left no doubt about the championship when he blew away the field with a winning time of 4:19.96, nearly five seconds faster than the 1500m runner-up, sophomore Tim Armstrong of Spokane who finished third overall.

On the women’s side, Mt Hood sophomore Crystal Sims led the competition in points from start to finish both days to take down the Heptathlon Championship.Â Sims finished in the top three in six of the seven events to earn 4305 points overall, 182 more than Spokane sophomore Taylor Cook who took second.Â

Cook started the day in fourth place but had strong performances in today’s three events, including the top javelin throw of 34.37m (112′ 9.14″).

Mt Hood freshman Catherine Sims began the day in third place and easily finished the meet in third, 244 points ahead of Clark sophomore Brooklyn Holton.

The top three finishers; Noble, Walker and Armstrong for the men and Sims, Taylor and Sims earned NWAACC All-American honors.

The remaining NWAACC Track & Field Championship events will take place on May 21-23 in Spokane.

Coaches’ comments: Matt has been shaking off a little rust but is now beginning to run fast again. Though the results indicate he got 4th in the Pioneer open, he blew his heat away and was running by himself. I have mentioned it several times…the men’s 800m at NWAACC is going to be HOT. Romey concluded his meet by running a 48.7ish anchor leg on a season PR relay performance.

Coaches’ comments: Comments about athlete’s performance(s): Both were new PR’s (Discus-8’ PR, SP-1’ PR) and we are really impressed w/ Griffon as he played basketball and has only been out for a month. He is the new NWAACC leader in the Discus.

Coaches’ comments: Catherine took about a second off of her hurdles time for the year; she won the 400m in the pioneer open with a good time; she competed well in the heptathlon earlier in the week; and she ran huge in the meet winning 4x400m Relay. Catherine is very versatile and is on the verge of improving her marks to the next level.

Another coach wrote, “She won both the 200 and 400 at the Lewis and Clark Invitational”.

Female Field Athlete of the WeekDianne Chong, Southwestern Oregon, Freshman

Meet: Lewis & Clark Invitational
Event: Triple Jump Mark: 36’ 9 ½”

Coaches’ comments: Dianne broke our school record in the women’s Triple Jump by over a foot. She placed second in the event, just getting beat by 1 cm.

Coaches comments: Terra won the 100m hurdles with a very good time (15.14) for early April. Terraâ€™s high school PR was a 15.32. She also ran legs on the winning 4x100m relay as well as the winning 800m sprint medley. To complete a great day for herself, she broke her own school record with a jump of 12â€™ in the pole vault and got 2nd overall in the event.

Coaches’ comments: Lacyâ€™s high school PR was a 118â€™ in the javelin. Last week she threw 131ish which was huge for her. This week, she won the javelin in the Pacific NW Relays with a throw of 141â€™8â€ (43.18m) which takes her up a level. She also set a new PR in the Hammer and finished 3rd for the competition.

Another coach wrote, â€œAwesome throw.â€

Another coach wrote, â€œLacy won the Javelin and placed 3rd in the Hammer Throw at the Pacific Northwest Relays.â€